Iron premiered at The Edinburgh Festival in 2002, staged by The Traverse Theatre, and quickly gained critical acclaim. The play is an intense psychological drama, set within the confines of a female prison where Fay Black is serving life for the murder of her husband. She is fifteen years into her sentence when she receives the first visitor she has had apart from her solicitor. The visitor is Josie, the daughter she has neither seen nor heard from since being sentenced.

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Through a series of prison visits the play explores their mother and daughter relationship as they try to break down the barriers of time, memory and punishment that separate them. Apart from the guards, Fay has formed no significant relationships inside prison and the arrival of Josie after so long awakens a maternal instinct that she struggles to cope with. Defensive and aggressive, Fay is reluctant to deal with her old life and the outside world after so long, while Josie wants answers; answers that Fay is reluctant to give.

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A powerful and moving play, Iron explores the nature of life imprisonment for women and their children, while also being a gripping story about a murder and the hidden and uncomfortable truth behind it. The revelations, when they come, are searingly powerful. This is a play which will linger in the audience’s minds long after the final curtain.